The idea of people’s influence on foreign policy decisions creates several heated discussions. Primarily, due to the constant polar opposite shifts in views, depending on the current situation and whether it required unity with the public or a stronger focus on the President, bureaucracies, and Congress. In the following text, I plan to express my opinion on whether the public, social movements, and interest groups should follow or lead foreign policy decisions.
When it comes to the public, they should have a neutral influence on the decisions. Undeniably, their opinions will be rather helpful for intelligence agencies to assess a certain situation from a civil point of view. However, the public may sometimes lack the necessary context or information that may be required to better understand a specific foreign conflict between the US and another country.
Interest groups and social movements, on the other hand, may be more suitable in this situation, as their input will most likely consider the crucial advantages, disadvantages, and underlying factors. Conflict and competition between bureaucracies may be damaging to proper foreign policy decisions, which is why groups and movements with suitable knowledge may be important for offering better choices, otherwise, the President may be given the wrong advice.
It is important to note, however, that depending on the nature of the situation, the interaction between Congress and the President varies. For example, the Vietnam War weakened the cooperation between the two by making the former more assertive. Meanwhile, 9/11 has caused the exact opposite of the aforementioned situation. What makes the complexity of the public’s influence on foreign policy more severe is that Congress not only has a great influence on foreign policy laws, they have the right to declare war.
The aforementioned factor emphasizes that foreign policy requires unbiased and knowledgeable opinions to lead them. By allowing interest groups and social movements related to a specific issue to influence foreign policy, it is more likely to either prevent poor decisions on the matter or offer a more nuanced viewpoint. As mentioned earlier, conflict and competition between bureaucracies may lead to incorrect or harmful decisions, which further proves the need to consider the viewpoint of social movements and interest groups.
Social Control In Eating Disorders
The need for food is a basic need aimed at maintaining homeostasis and obtaining the energy and nutrients necessary for life. However, most people’s eating behavior is determined not only by their body’s needs but also by socio-cultural stereotypes, their upbringing, ways of reacting to external circumstances, and the influence of the media. These factors often provoke the occurrence of two pathological conditions, obesity and anorexia, the spread of which makes many specialists think about the issue of social control of eating behavior. The methods of social control of obesity and weight loss exist nowadays in negative forms; they include restrictions on lifestyle, cause mental problems and relapses, and do not contribute to changing the situation.
Lifestyle change, being one of the traditional ways of treating weight problems, does not lead to long-term results. This method, in more than half of the cases, does not improve the situation and leads to relapse (Meule 253). Controlling daily habits and increasing physical activity levels are not only recommended by nutritionists and dietitians in private counseling but are also becoming part of mass propaganda. The effect of the latter, however, is often negative and even unpredictable. Caroline Knapp provides numerous examples of how social settings make people feel uncomfortable while eating high-calorie food (21). The principles of restrictions in nutrition provoke the guilt of having an eating disorder. Those who had problems with losing weight, being the victims of social control, can later experience anorexia.
In an effort to meet societal standards for healthy eating, obese people try to limit their food intake, but so do people who do not have weight problems and those who need to gain mass. When ordering at a cafe, even a healthy person will find it unacceptable to order more calorie-dense food than the people around them (Knapp 24). At a store, the customer will be overly concerned about how much of what they buy meets the caloric standards. In a company of friends, the one who wants to have a meal feels uncomfortable if the other people are not hungry (Knapp 30). Thus, social control, while struggling with consumption disorders, provokes even more inadequate behavior.
Any external restrictions imposed on people by society provoke the paradoxical opposite action. Propaganda for actively burning calories or forbidding fatty foods is bound to lead to a relapse, and a suicidal weight gain will also cause a further reduction in the diet. According to Knapp’s arguments, this is because social control does not take into account the psychological aspect of such diseases (21). Considering obesity and anorexia in terms of addictions, one of the most ineffective means is to impose demands and restrictions on the patient (Ortiz 60). Some psychologists argue that in dealing with compulsive overeating or weight loss cravings, people should be allowed to become victims of these conditions (Meule 252). They must experience the negative consequences of their health and mental state, including those mentioned in Prose’s essay (7). Such a strategy would create a desire for people to take personal responsibility for their own health and to embark on a conscious path to recovery that is independent of external factors.
Moreover, social control in all its forms is incapable of taking personal characteristics into account. Often eating disorders hide psychological trauma that needs to be treated (Dixon 47). Condemnation and censure can only worsen a person’s condition and provoke the appearance of other complexes and addictions. Treatment of obesity and anorexia is always based on the principle of individualism and does not allow for the creation of universal guidelines and norms.
It is important to remember that eating disorders are, first and foremost, a personal problem, imposing many restrictions on life. Therefore, society should not create additional restrictions but rather contribute to alleviating such people’s conditions (Ortiz 48). Popularization needs to shift from imposing additional limits on people to expanding cultural boundaries, showing that society understands and accepts the social, domestic, and psychological difficulties in dealing with inadequate weight.
Persons who are severely obese or anorexic find it difficult to get a job, and they experience discriminatory promotion restrictions and everyday living inconveniences. There are restrictions in movement, the choice of clothing, discomfort in carrying out adequate hygienic activities, and sexual disorders are often observed (Dixon 11). Francine Prose uses this idea as an argument for the necessity of social control, adding that it will help obedient people (9). Anyway, in this situation, it is more appropriate to speak about changing the existing social standards. For example, while obese people have an extensive selection of clothing in large sizes, anorexics often have to go to children’s departments to find their own clothes. A revision is also needed in catering since standards are needed not only for larger portions but also for smaller portions. The sizes of seats in airplanes are a big problem for obese people since they have to buy one more ticket (Prose 8). Anyway, imposing social control will not prevent those who have already been struggling with overweight for years from this inconvenience.
Thus, social control, expressed in a set of food restrictions and requirements for people’s lifestyles, cannot be considered unambiguously effective. This approach does not take into account the psychological nature of the disease and promotes the formation of stereotypes, complexes, and avoidance of personal responsibility. What is needed in addressing a problem that has become global in recent years is not control but understanding and tolerance, which will allow people to achieve the desired awareness of diet and lifestyle.
Works Cited
Dixon, Jen. Bones: Anorexia, OCD, and Me. JD Associates, 2022.
Knapp, Caroline. “Add Cake, Subtract Self-Esteem.” Appetite: Why Women Want, Counterpoint, 2011, pp. 22–54.
Meule, Adrian. “The Psychology of Food Cravings: The Role of Food Deprivation.” Current Nutrition Reports, vol. 9, no. 3, 2020, pp. 251–57.
Ortiz, Reivan Geovanny Genaro. Eating Behavior Habits. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 2022.
Prose, Francine. “The Wages of Sin”. Gluttony: The Seven Deadly Sins, Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 7-15.
Analysis Of Elizabeth Bishop’s “In The Waiting Room”
Pulitzer Prize awarded and one of the most important poets of the twentieth century – Elizabeth Bishop – is the author of “In the Waiting Room”. This poem was published in 1971 and starts with setting the time and place of the story. Little Elizabeth came to a dentist’s appointment with her aunt Consuelo and sat in the waiting room while her aunt was getting treatment. The story in the poem took place in February 1918 in Bishop’s hometown – Worcester, Massachusetts. The Waiting Room unveils Elizabeth’s childhood experience and uncovers many vital themes. The main topics of the poem are the author’s first steps in identifying her sexual orientation and her anti-war position during the poem’s published year.
The poem reveals the beginning of Elizabeth’s search for her sexual orientation. Seven years old Bishop was sitting in the waiting room and looking through National Geographic magazine when she saw “black, naked women” (Bishop 45). Elizabeth continues by saying, “Their breasts were horrifying” (Bishop 45). Through these lines reader observes a child having the standard reaction to naked bodies – she was frightened. Later in the poem, she is reading the magazine without stopping and without embarrassment. Those lines explain to the reader that Elizabeth was going through a strange experience that she encountered for the first time in her life. According to O’Carroll et al. article, “years before reproductive capacity begins is naturally a time for learning” (O’Carroll et al. 3) which explains how Elizabeth started exploring new things in the magazine. Bishop lived for 14 years with a Brazilian woman Lota de Macedo Soares, which hints at her non-traditional sexual orientation. Premises of her queerness are seen in the lines “Why should I be my aunt, or me, or anyone?” (Bishop 45). The poem might be a confession she made in her adulthood.
Another important topic in the poem is Elizabeth’s anti-war position which is understood through knowing the context of the story. This work was published in July 1971 – a year when Washington D.C. saw the largest anti-war demonstration (Flückiger). In addition, the author mentions the fifth of February 1918 – the year when the first time sent American ship with troops for World War 1 was bombed by a German U-Boat near the coast of Ireland (Axelrod). Bishop’s setting in the poem is “night and slush and cold,” which symbolizes how frustrated she was by the situation in the world (Bishop 45). A seven-year-old child, Elizabeth, was sitting in the dentist’s waiting room and realized that there was war outside (Bishop). Uncovering the anti-war and humane topic makes this poem live even today. Perhaps, the actuality of the problem encouraged the author to write her story down so many years later.
The poem’s language is more prose-like because of the absence of rhyme but it still has several poetic devices that make “In the Waiting Room” authentic. Some of them are enjambment (line breaks), figurative language, and alliteration. Enjambment is used to control the speed at which the reader goes through the lines; for instance, lines seven in stanzas one and two in the fifth stanza are examples of enjambment. This device enables the reader to dive into the poem’s mood and atmosphere, which is a little sad and dark. Instead of metaphors, Bishop used figurative language to describe that one thing was similar to another. The reader can observe this method through lines from twenty-eight to thirty in the first stanza. Alliteration appears in line twenty-seven of stanza one by repeating “round and round” (Bishop 45). All these devices make the poem sound emotional and help readers experience the same thing as the author.
To conclude, “In the Waiting Room” is an essential literary work about a child searching for sexual orientation and beholding an anti-war position where literary devices such as alliteration, enjambment, and figurative language are employed. Elizabeth used this poem to tell how she began questioning her sexuality and expressing her position regarding the political state in the world, which makes the poem actual even today. Teaching this poem at schools and universities will possibly help youngsters who go through the same experience described in the poem feel less alone.
Works Cited
O’Carroll, Thomas. “Sharon Lamb & Jen Gilbert (Eds.): The Cambridge Handbook of Sexual Development: Childhood and Adolescence.” (2020): 345-354.
Bishop, Elizabeth. The Complete Poems: 1927-1979. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006.
Flückiger, Isabelle. “1971 - a Turning Point in History That Still Influences Today’s World.” Medium, History of Yesterday, 2021.
Axelrod, Alan. How America Won World War I. Rowman & Littlefield, 2018.